Moving On

So far, so good. It's Wednesday night and I'm still alive. This week has been CRAZY busy, I've never crammed so much into four days as has been crammed into these past four.

Our Kindergarten Christmas party was a success yesterday. But you probably wouldn't expect anything else when lots of candy and chips and cookies were found in over abundance. I know we did other things but the day went by so quickly I couldn't even tell you what we did. Then last night we were invited over some friends' house for dinner. It was the best dinner I've had in a long time and I totally pigged out. She made this pulled chicken soup with a southwestern flair. Then the salad had tons of sides to go with it, like olives, corn, cheese, kidney beans, sour cream... There was also salsa and, my personal favorite, guacamole with chips!!! Everyone else was done eating, and had been for a bit, while I was working on my second bowl of soup and chowing down on the chips with guacamole. My mom would have been totally embarrassed if she had been there, fortunately D didn't care, or didn't notice... After dinner we watched Christmas with the Kranks and I have to admit it was very entertaining.

We got home much later than I wanted to, so D helped me make Calzone Pinwheels for my staff Christmas party the next day. It's a neat recipe and they were a big hit today, so it was worth it. Speaking of today, we made gingerbread cookies in Kindergarten and they actually came out good. I don't think my kids would have really cared if the results were disastrous, they just love the entire cooking process. So, needless to say, we (they) made a huge mess by the time we were through pouring, mixing, rolling, cookie cutting, and decorating our little gingerbread men. But they were delish, especially with all that frosting on them!

Not that I needed another snack to add to my menu today. We got huge party platters full of chicken nuggets and wraps from Chick-fil-A to go along with a variety of chips and dips, calzone pinwheels, and desserts, desserts, desserts for the staff party. I think they will be eating that food well into next week (while I'm on vacation!!!). Thus begins a good week and a half of non-stop eating! Also entertaining me this afternoon was the baby brother of one of my students. He's just nine pounds, at two and a half months, after being born two months premature and he is such a doll!! He's so cute and cuddly and quite the charmer. Everyone asks when I'm going to have one, but he'll do just fine for now. He cried when I put him back in his room so I think he even likes me! Either that or they were tears of relief that he didn't have to hear his sister's constant chatter in the background.

While all this is going on this week, David is ordering a new cell phone and accessories, (ok I admit) going on some errands for me, and hanging out with friends. Matter of fact, that's where he is now, which means I will be the one packing up and cleaning up before we leave on our (yay!) extended vacation tomorrow night!!! All I have to get through is our Christmas show tomorrow afternoon and I'm home free!

I am happy to report that people in Lancaster County are not afraid of the word "Christmas" nor do they have difficulty publicly acknowledging anything associated with it. Our hotel even had a Christmas tree in its lobby. We saw big, bright colored lights and nativity scenes everywhere, even at places that were obviously business buildings. It was...refreshing. We left home around 10:30 on Saturday morning and made the hour and a half drive to Lancaster to see Sounds of Christmas at the Dutch Apple Dinner Theater (actually for us it was a lunch theater because the seats were better and the tickets were cheaper).

We made a quick stop at a Walmart on the way and we knew that we had arrived in Lancaster County because of the Amish buggy making its way through the parking lot. What could the Amish possibly want at Walmart when basically everything they own is homemade and without the use of electricity? I'd be interested in knowing that, too. Another observation: if you want to know the type of people who live in a certain area, go to the local Walmart. This particular store was a supercenter, which I hadn't previously been to, but it also had a huge selection of hunting paraphernalia with a wide variety of camaflouge, guns, and gun accessories. And I just might have happened upon the shoe section and was appauled to find what I thought were the only choices in women's dress shoes. I use the word "choice" very loosely because they were all the same simple, black, 1/2" heel, $6.47 type of shoe that are standard issue for the Mennonite women-an entire section of them! Too bad the camera was in the car.

Anyway, we arrived at the theater, visited the lunch buffet and the dessert buffet, and took in our surroundings. It's a really cool setup and rather than try to describe it, here's a seating chart: We were at table B8, so we were in the front of our section. The production was very well done. Unfortunately we weren't able to take any pictures due to "copyright laws and for the safety of the performers," but it was fast-paced and they were able to cram 41 Christmas songs into the two-hour performance. We started way back in 1910 with Christmas in Central Park where many nationalities and traditions were represented and explained. Then it was Christmas 1949 and a winter wonderland theme with songs like Baby It's Cold Outside, Favorite Things, Let It Snow, and Sleigh Ride. After Intermission, we saw Christmas in the Country where we peaked in on one southern church's Christmas play put on by the children (accents and all!). We were encouraged to sing along with songs like It Came Upon a Midnight Clear, Away in a Manger, and Joy to the World. I really liked this part of the show, it had the cuteness factor along with some kid humor that you probably have to be a teacher to appreciate. Then there was some random "Under the Tree Toy Fantasia" scene where they sang/danced to The Nutcracker Suite and a few other original Christmas songs. Then the show was rounded out with "Swingin' Santa" and the title of one song describes this scene best: Zoot Suit Santa. Most of the songs had a jazzy spin to them, and we love jazz, so we enjoyed the finale. The actors/dancers were excellent and the costumes brought you back to the time period represented. This was probably more than you ever wanted to know about a Christmas show, but I really wanted to write snippets so I can look back and remember it!

All that sitting and watching tired me out, so we checked into our hotel which ended up being five minutes away, and we relaxed until dinnertime. Since we'll be driving to CT on D's birthday, I thought it'd be a good idea to celebrate early...which worked out because David is not only a member of the Cold Stone Creamery Birthday Club, but he's also a member of Ruby Tuesday's Bday Club. That means we had a coupon for a free Chocolate Tallcake, and boy was it tall! Here's a before and after shot...of the cake and of how D felt before and after eating it (with my help):



















We got our complimentary breakfast of muffins and danish the next morning, and we even got juice after Dave inquired as to why the juice machine wasn't working. Check out was at 11am, so we left for home then. The ride home went by really quick, but I managed to snap some pictures of Lancaster on our way out:

A very important sign!

Typical Lancaster scenery...

D ate at the restaurant advertised here when he went to Lancaster with his family years ago.
Oops, how'd that sneak in here? Well, while we're on the subject, I LOVE Auntie Anne's pretzels and can sniff them out anywhere. We stopped by a different Walmart on the way home and the minute we walked in, I asked Dave, "Is that Auntie Anne's I smell?" Sure enough, it was and Dave let me get one. And did you know they sell make-your-own-Auntie- Anne's pretzel kits? Dave didn't let me get it though.

Finally, our weekend ended with my boss's Christmas program at her church at night. We missed our church's program in CT and we will miss our church's program here while we're in CT, so we wanted to go to this one. We went last year and thoroughly enjoyed it, so we were invited and attended again this year. We even got this neat little ornament that I am sure will look nice on our future big tree.

It's only going to get busier from here, especially in kindergarten, this week. We went to see the Nutcracker ballet (an abridged version for short attention spans) and then to lunch at Friendly's today, we're having our Christmas party tomorrow, baking and decorating gingerbread men on Wednesday, and performing a song and dance number to Home for the Holidays in our "Holiday" program on Thursday. Not to mention other get-togethers and packing plans going on this week...did someone say something about a vacation??

With 9 days left until Christmas I am in total Christmas-mode. We finished wrapping about 99% of our gifts last night. Christmas music, and good company, make wrapping not such a tedious thing. I'm always good about getting my Christmas shopping done well in advance...but I've been known to leave wrapping until extremely last minute. At which point I think how pointless it is to wrap the gifts since they will be unwrapped very shortly. Fortuntely, Dave was very much in the wrapping groove this year and we got everything done in a few nights. Now all we have to do is transport them safely to Connecticut.

Tonight, after dinner, we got hot chocolate at the local Wawa (I know, it's an incredibly funny name, but they had a "Merry Christmas" sign hanging up so they're my new favorite store!) and headed out to see some Christmas lights. There is such a range of decorating styles, from absolutely nothing to owning stock in the local energy company. There were a few houses we oohed and ahhed over and one even looked like a real-life gingerbread house. The morning talkshow host we faithfully listen to has started a campaign to bring back the "big, fat colored lights" that quite noticeably have been replaced by "boring and pretentious" white lights. He would be disappointed to know that we saw more white light displays than colored light displays. And while the white lights do give off a more elegant ambiance, the colored lights are defintely more fun to look at. They are more fun to look at, provided they aren't accompanied by those HUGE inflatible characters which are incredibly gaudy looking if more than one are in the same yard...in my humble opinion. One house had Santa and a reindeer standing side-by-side (and very disproportionate, which obviously means they were never intended to be side-by-side) and Frosty a few feet away waving at the both of them. Um...no. It's displays like this that make me wonder what their interior decorations look like all year round. Sorry, that was kind of mean. Anyway, we had a very fun Christmas-light-looking experience which will probably turn into a tradition since we've been doing it for the past few years.

This incredible work--requested by a forgotten parish priest, written by a poet who would later split from the church, given soaring music by a Jewish composer, and brought to Americans to serve as much as a tool to spotlight the sinful nature of slavery as tell the story of the birth of a Savior--has become one of the most beautiful, inspired pieces of music ever created.

"The strange and fascinating story of "O Holy Night" began in France, yet eventually made its way around the world. This seemingly simple song, inspired by a request from a clergyman, would not only become one of the most beloved anthems of all time, it would mark a technological revolution that would forever change the way people were introduced to music.
In 1847, Placide Cappeau de Roquemaure was the commissionaire of wines in a small French town. Known more for his poetry than his church attendance, it probably shocked Placide when his parish priest asked the commissionaire to pen a poem for Christmas mass. Nevertheless, the poet was honored to share his talents with the church.

In a dusty coach traveling down a bumpy road to France's capital city, Placide Cappeau considered the priest's request. Using the gospel of Luke as his guide, Cappeau imagined witnessing the birth of Jesus in Bethlehem. Thoughts of being present on the blessed night inspired him. By the time he arrived in Paris, "Cantique de Noel" had been completed.
Moved by his own work, Cappeau decided that his "Cantique de Noel" was not just a poem, but a song in need of a master musician's hand. Not musically inclined himself, the poet turned to one of his friends, Adolphe Charles Adams, for help.

The son of a well-known classical musician, Adolphe had studied in the Paris conservatoire. His talent and fame brought requests to write works for orchestras and ballets all over the world. Yet the lyrics that his friend Cappeau gave him must have challenged the composer in a fashion unlike anything he received from London, Berlin, or St. Petersburg.
As a man of Jewish ancestry, for Adolphe the words of "Cantique de Noel" represented a day he didn't celebrate and a man he did not view as the son of God. Nevertheless, Adams quickly went to work, attempting to marry an original score to Cappeau's beautiful words. Adams' finished work pleased both poet and priest. The song was performed just three weeks later at a Midnight Mass on Christmas Eve.

Initially, "Cantique de Noel" was wholeheartedly accepted by the church in France and the song quickly found its way into various Catholic Christmas services. But when Placide Cappeau walked away from the church and became a part of the socialist movement, and church leaders discovered that Adolphe Adams was a Jew, the song--which had quickly grown to be one of the most beloved Christmas songs in France--was suddenly and uniformly denounced by the church. The heads of the French Catholic church of the time deemed "Cantique de Noel" as unfit for church services because of its lack of musical taste and "total absence of the spirit of religion." Yet even as the church tried to bury the Christmas song, the French people continued to sing it, and a decade later a reclusive American writer brought it to a whole new audience halfway around the world.

Not only did this American writer--John Sullivan Dwight--feel that this wonderful Christmas song needed to be introduced to America, he saw something else in the song that moved him beyond the story of the birth of Christ. An ardent abolitionist, Dwight strongly identified with the lines of the third verse: "Truly he taught us to love one another; his law is love and his gospel is peace. Chains shall he break, for the slave is our brother; and in his name all oppression shall cease." The text supported Dwight's own view of slavery in the South. Published in his magazine, Dwight's English translation of "O Holy Night" quickly found favor in America, especially in the North during the Civil War.

Back in France, even though the song had been banned from the church for almost two decades, many commoners still sang "Cantique de Noel" at home. Legend has it that on Christmas Eve 1871, in the midst of fierce fighting between the armies of Germany and France, during the Franco-Prussian War, a French soldier suddenly jumped out of his muddy trench. Both sides stared at the seemingly crazed man. Boldly standing with no weapon in his hand or at his side, he lifted his eyes to the heavens and sang, "Minuit, Chretiens, c'est l'heure solennelle ou L'Homme Dieu descendit jusqu'a nous," the beginning of "Cantique de Noel."

After completing all three verses, a German infantryman climbed out his hiding place and answered with, "Vom Himmel noch, da komm' ich her. Ich bring' euch gute neue Mar, Der guten Mar bring' ich so viel, Davon ich sing'n und sagen will," the beginning of Martin Luther's robust "From Heaven Above to Earth I Come."

The story goes that the fighting stopped for the next twenty-four hours while the men on both sides observed a temporary peace in honor of Christmas day. Perhaps this story had a part in the French church once again embracing "Cantique de Noel" in holiday services." by Ace Collins



Or you can play this that D found for me...if you like the (synthesized?) flute better. Enjoy!

Saturday night we had the opportunity to experience something like a Nativity Walk, except it was much more extensive and it didn’t just focus on the nativity scene. We went with quite a big group from our church to a nearby church that transforms its building for the purpose of taking you through the true meaning of Christmas story. Our smaller group of sixteen was given the tribal name Benjamin, meaning raucous wolf, and we met our tour guide – a Roman centurion. He brought us to hear the prophet Isaiah foretell the coming of a Savior, then to see Mary when she learned that she would be the mother of the Messiah. We went with her to visit her cousin Elizabeth, the mother of John the Baptist and we eavesdropped on their conversation.

As we continued our journey we met a cranky old Census Taker who complained about the crowded streets of Bethlehem and a much nicer Innkeeper who spoke of having no room in his inn.

We stopped at his inn for a meal of pita bread, cheese, and grape juice before patronizing the Marketplace. We were given eight gold coins to spend in the marketplace which had a bakery (we sampled barley, the poor man’s food, with honey on top), a candy shop (where Dave spent most of his coins on their fudge), a carpentry shop where kids could make dreidels, a candle shop where I made this candle, and a potter’s shop where I made a stand for my candle (yes, the candle is in a sad state, I know, and that's with about 40 dips and a sore elbow). You could also choose to do weaving, repair fish nets, weights and measures, or visit the scribe to write your name in Hebrew. Background music was being played on the santour. There was a spice and herb shop where we got to see, touch, and smell frankincense and myrrh (among many other herbs and spices). Both of us were hit up by the tax collector and D said he lost a few coins to some beggars. Figures. No beggars came up to me… Dave was enjoying the music (and interrogating the musicians about their instruments) so much so that he didn’t hear our tribe being called and missed meeting the shepherds out in the field who were told by an angel that a Savior had been born.

David was still enjoying the music in the marketplace when the rest of our group found the baby in a manger with Mary and Joseph. The poor baby had been there for hours already and was a bit cranky, but exceptionally adorable all wrapped up in swaddling clothes like baby Jesus would have been. This was when D finally made an appearance and wanted to stay so he could experience what he had missed with another tribe. He couldn’t though because we carpooled with other people. This church did a phenomenal job making everything as real-life as possible and everyone who went thoroughly enjoyed the experience. I’m even debating whether or not to get D a santour for his birthday.

We had a very enjoyable 18-hour visit with Dave's parents this Friday night and Saturday morning. His mom hadn't seen our new apartment yet and his dad hadn't seen it in order and looking relatively clean. So it was nice to show them around and take them on the three-minute tour.

But the tour took place after dinner because we were all starving by the time they arrived around 6pm. We had a very nice dinner at Charlie Brown's, right near our church. We even somehow managed to avoid Coldstone Creamery which was in the same plaza! I think we all ate too much because we settled down for a movie when we got home, Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer, and many of us promptly fell asleep...some longer than others.

This morning, we were out of the house by 10am and on our way to IHOP for a late breakfast. After showing Mom and Dad the hospital where Dave is working (side note: D ends his Family Medicine rotation this week and has a two week Christmas vacation. When he returns in January, he will be doing surgery for twelve weeks! I can't believe he's already this far into his third year!!!), they got on the road! We'll see them in 12 days, according to my countdown, which, I should have probably mentioned, is also D's 27th birthday.

Mom and Dad gave us some housewarming gifts and my personal favorite is the Mannheim Steamroller Christmas Celebration CD. I'm still puzzling over the fact that we didn't already have it because we saw them live last year at the Wachovia Center in Philly. All the songs on the CD are all the songs they performed last year which we really, really, really enjoyed. Anyway, it's been playing for quite a few hours now...much to the chagrin of David :).

That was a quote from The Christmas Carol by one Ganzo, uh, I mean, Charles Dickens. We continued kicking off December, and the Christmas season, with some more festivities. Saturday night we all went over Keith and Julie's for dinner and some Christmas movies. Julie had the awesome idea of ordering a party platter of popcorn chicken from Chick-fil-A. We ate every single piece and could have eaten more - delicious! She also made this cheesecake that was one of the best we have ever had.

So back to the Dickens quote. We, being the adults that we are, decided on two movies to watch: The Muppets Christmas Carol and Jingle All the Way. Dad and I would always watch It's A Wonderful Life and D said his family would always watch How the Grinch Stole Christmas. I guess lots of people have their own little Christmas-moving-watching traditions. In any case here are my personal ratings:

A












B












A+












A+

I designated Friday night as Put Up Our Christmas Decorations Night complete with Christmas music and hot chocolate. Dave was a willing participant (I think it was the promise of hot chocolate that tipped the scales), so we were off to a great start after we got our naps in. First we had to find the box of Christmas items, which could have been tricky if it was under all of the boxes and other stuff piled high in our hall closet. Fortunately, it wasn't. We had put it in our little storage area near the washing machines, so that was easy.

D had the job of assembling our 32” Christmas tree my grandma had bought for us a few years ago. I think he did a fine job…


Meanwhile, I was setting up more of the decorations my grandma had just recently given to us and other odds and ends we have accumulated in our two years together.



Oh yes, D also had the task of stringing these lights on our blinds. He did a good job on that, too.

I was getting adventurous and some of the decorations spilled over into the kitchen and bathroom.


A trip to Target was necessary because they have the best hot chocolate ever. It probably has something to do with the fact that I didn’t make it because I’m a terrible hot chocolate-maker. We were delayed a few minutes because of the sheets of rain pouring down outside, but that soon passed and we made it to Target without incident. D decided to be all fancy and add coffee to his hot chocolate, but I just had straight up hot chocolate and breadsticks. Actually we both had breadsticks because we had late lunches and weren’t hungry for dinner. I know, not the best dinner we’ve had but it was cheap so it had that going for it. While at Target, we also got some red lights that we wrapped around our balcony to complete our decorating date. I was thinking of getting a few more things to add to our Christmas decorations collection, but D informed me that he was only good for one decorating date. That said, I did get this poinsettia out of him today.

I was trying not to rush Wednesday because then it would never come and I’d just be frustrated instead of looking forward to our four-day break. I think I did a pretty good job of pacing myself through the week and received a little extra bonus for my efforts…I wanted to take Wednesday completely off, but D didn’t have that luxury, so we were planning to leave early morning, as in 2 or 3am, on Thanksgiving Day for Connecticut. However that all changed at about 10:30am when D called me at work to say that they had cancelled afternoon lecture and he would be out by noon and could I possibly get out earlier so we could get on the road. First response: they couldn’t have told you this earlier? Next response: let me ask. Conveniently, another teacher was able to take over my class at one, which is when I left. Fortunately I had done almost all of our packing and we left PA around 1:45pm. Preparing for a long trip on one of the most traveled days of the year, we made okay-time and arrived in CT a little before eight. As David kept reminding me, it was better than sitting at home waiting for 2am to roll around. I was even more thankful that we were able to leave early when we saw how bad it was raining the next day.

It was also nice arriving earlier than expected because it seemed like we got another day to visit…well in my case with family, in D’s case with the Nintendo Wii. I couldn’t blame him or the mass of people crammed in the front room mesmerized by this thing, it was very cool. Our Miis were already created for us, so we were able to start playing immediately. And, yeah, that was pretty much our Wednesday night!

Thursday, being Thanksgiving, was busy. We woke up to the smell of the turkey cooking, yum!
We ate dinner with my family and headed over to D’s house early evening for dessert and Christmas.

Our two nieces, Olyvia and Ariana, were at the same place at the same time, so we had lots of fun and got lots of pictures. We stayed the night and decided not to get up early for Black Friday, yay! We didn’t need anything since all of our Christmas shopping was done, so there was really no point and I’m glad David thought the same. We ended up going out to breakfast with Mom, Dad, and Ry and then Mom and I did our usual rounds at our favorite stores at a much more reasonable hour.

Saturday was also busy, which is why our vacation seemed to go by so quickly. We attended Ariana and Olyvia’s Open House at Dave’s house and got to see lots of family. Rita, Ryan’s girlfriend’s mom, invited us over for a late lunch which we happily accepted because she is just the sweetest person you want to meet. She put together a delicious meal and dessert, all homemade. We also got to see her newly-decorated house for the first time and she did a beautiful job! After Rita’s, we went back to D’s house to visit with our little nieces again because we could never get too much of them! Oh, we liked visiting with everyone else there, too…of course.


So Sunday came and that was Departure Day. We had a big Sunday dinner with Grammy, Grampa, Mom, Dad, D’s parents, Peter, Auntie, Ana, Ryan, Yana, Nick, Kristina, Dave, and me. I was sad to go, but it’s nice to know that we’ll be back in three short weeks, according to my countdown. Traffic was non-existent on our four-hour drive home. I even started setting up some Christmas decorations my grandma gave me when we got back. I can’t believe it’ll already be December this week. That’s when all the decorations will emerge. And so begins the Christmas season, fa la la la la, la la la la.

I love David, you know that. But, well, he is a nerd. I think you know that, too. Now I have concrete evidence, if there was ever any lingering doubt.

Background: Dave uses Gmail as his email service and is really very into it because he uses it for much more then email. He is constantly fiddling around with its various features, lest he miss something important…or cool. And just to make sure that he never, ever misses anything, Dave actually subscribes to a Gmail podcast run by some random techie guy who is not associated with Gmail but who is also spellbound by its features (as if that wasn’t enough confirmation, there’s more!).

Evidence: One day, in the midst of fiddling, David discovered something about Gmail that he didn’t know existed (I didn’t believe it at first myself). After taking me through it step by step and not getting the desired/proper response (he lost me after his first sentence), he promptly emailed the guy whose Gmail podcasts he listens to on a regular basis and explained in careful detail what he had just discovered. That’s not all…

Overwhelming Evidence: The guy emailed him back and was very impressed by what D had to say (oh great!). He said he’d include this helpful finding in one of his upcoming podcasts. Well that day has arrived. If you click on the below link you will hear some ramblings, Dave mentioned by name, and then some more ramblings.

Do you think his head has shrunk yet? It hasn’t.

The Infamous Gmail Podcast

I thought it was only fair, in this instance, that I give myself the same assignment I have given to my kindergarten class. Today was our Thanksgiving feast, so naturally we have been talking about the first Thanksgiving and the many topics that go along with it. We listed a number of things that the Pilgrims were most likely grateful for as they were sitting down to their Thanksgiving table. We did have to exclude many electronic items such as televisions and Game Boys, for obvious reasons, but they ended up getting the jist of it—I think. Then I asked them to think about what they were thankful for, since Thanksgiving is already next week. We’ll reconvene on Monday and see what they came up with. Reviewing this past year, I found much to be thankful for, which was no surprise. It’s always nice to see how much we have when our society tends to focus on what we don’t have.

thanksgiving - the act of giving thanks; grateful acknowledgment of benefits or favors, an expression of thanks, esp. to God; a public celebration in acknowledgment of divine favor or kindness (dictionary.com)

I’ve divided my thankfulness into two categories:

Things I’m really thankful for:
God and His offer of salvation and outpouring of grace and mercy
my once-in-a-lifetime husband
an extraordinary family
fantastic friends
our church
an income that covers more than our needs
even my kindergarteners
reliable transportation
freedom
safe traveling
Dave getting into medical school
Dave doing so well in med school
our time here in Philly
holidays with family
random acts of kindness
our apartment
spring, summer, fall

Things that I’m thankful for, but could get by without:
family cell phone plans
green tea
Dougie
my two-minute commute
dinners out
the Internet
libraries
jazz radio (which was recently reinstated here in Philly!)
winter

I know these lists can be much, much longer. And, well, I am thankful for that!

"Giving thanks always for all things unto God and the Father in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ." Ephesians 5:20

Well another weekend goes on the books! Weekends go by way too quickly. Although I have to say that my weekdays go by just as quickly, so no complaints there. Kindergarten has a busy week coming up. We’re going on a field trip to the local arboretum on Tuesday, then there’s Picture Day on Wednesday, and our cook is cooking up a huge Thanksgiving Feast on Friday to which parents are invited. It promises to be a fun one!

This weekend was a nice blend of busyness and relaxation. Friday night started with dinner in downtown Media (which is like downtown West Hartford, I love going there because it reminds me of home) at the Iron Hill and a trip to the mall to walk around after all that good food. And, well, it pretty much ended there. D and I got home and promptly cuddled on the couch while watching TV and even more promptly fell asleep. I’ll be generous and say we made it until 9pm. Dave told me in the morning that he got up around 11:30pm and told me he wanted to move to the bed, which I guess I wasn’t too pleased about because he said I wasn’t pleasant to him. I got up around 12:30am confused as to where I was and wondering why he didn’t wake me up to go to bed. I guess late night/early morning isn’t our best communication time.

Saturday morning D got up to go to a local high school where he was volunteering for the morning, doing sports physicals. He’ll tell you all about it on his blog, but I was confused about the whole volunteer thing because he got paid $20/hour. Anyway during that time, I was very productive. I made cranberry bread for a get-together we were going to later on that evening, did the dishes, cleaned up around the house (are you impressed yet, Mom??), made the bed (which never, ever happens), and even tried a new dessert recipe that was emailed to me. It’s called Harvest Dumplings and you can click on the picture if you’re interested in the recipe. D said he enjoyed them, although it was a bit tricky trying to figure out how to start the eating process. But all was well and they taste kind of like apple pie. Oh yes, while on the subject of desserts, I got a chance to use the birthday coupon Coldstone Creamery emailed to me last weekend. It's good for two weeks after your birthday. We went there after lunch and again Dave made out on the deal and got something for himself. Which was perfectly okay with me because his birthday is next month and he's in the Coldstone Creamery birthday club, too. :)

I also booked a trip to Lancaster which I’m reallllllly excited about. Each year D and I don’t exchange Christmas gifts, so instead we like to go to some sort of theater that is doing a Christmas-type show. The night we got engaged we went to Radio City Music Hall’s Christmas Spectacular and last year we saw Manheim Steamroller at the Wachovia Center (which was way cool!). So this year we are planning on going to the Dutch Apple Dinner Theatre in Lancaster to see Sounds of Christmas. My family has been to Dolly Parton’s Dixie Stampede Dinner & Show and Medieval Times Dinner & Tournament in South Carolina which is probably similar, but this is in an actual theater instead of an arena. I’ve always wanted to go to one of these things, don’t know why, but it'll be fun. Then we’ll visit sites around the area because D said they’ll have lots of Christmas displays since we’re going December 16-17th.

Saturday night we went over Dave and Lori’s house, from church, for a Game Night. We got to meet some new people and enjoyed a few hours of craziness. People really get into their game, my goodness. We played Catch Phrase and a new game called Apples to Apples. I’ve read about it and was even going to get it as a Christmas gift for someone last year, but didn’t. It is a very amusing game, simple yet entertaining.

We are looking forward to our upcoming trip to CT for Thanksgiving. I hope Dad has his dining room extension project completed by then, which I’m sure he will. It’ll be weird not to feel so cramped around the Thanksgiving table this year!

My friend Sara gave me this recipe from her Taste of Home recipe magazine that she gets once every two months. I was going to subscribe to it, until I discovered you can get most of the recipes off of their website...which is good, because the last thing this apartment needs is another magazine!

Not to go off on a tangent, but somehow both D and I got airline miles from Delta and USAir respectively, which somehow transferred into magazine subscriptions. Not ones to pass up free offers, we mailed in our choices. So now we've been getting at least 3 to 4 magazines at any given time; some are weekly, some monthly, some every two months. It's borderline ridiculous. Finally, Dave called some of the magazines to see if he could suspend some while we have others coming. Which they did allow him to do. Yipee. I think one salesperson thought D wanted to all out cancel (which I wouldn't have objected to) the subscription, so he gave us a subscription extension...now we have US News & World Report magazine coming weekly until 2010. Double yipee.

But I digress. Try the chili bowls, they are simply appetizing.

Click here for the recipe!

David was reading his monthly PC World magazine last night (I will remain silent about the level of nerdiness because if I say something, I'd have to apologize later) as I was going on my computer to blog about our weekend. He came across this way-cool website called scrapblog.com. It's basically a self-explanatory website name: it allows you to create a virtual scrapbook complete with backgrounds, frames, stickers, texts, and photos. A neater thing I have yet to come across! So I had lots of fun creating what you are about to see...

Click on the link below. Use the forward arrow in the upper right hand corner to scroll through the pages (not the "slideshow" option).

My Scrapblog

This is our little pumpkin guy. Dave picked out the design and we both worked on carving him out. D found this website called www.pumpkinlady.com that has all these different carving designs, and I found a few that I liked. However, when it came down to carving, they were a little more complicated than I was willing to do, so this was a simple, yet fun, design.

Ron and Sara invited our Sunday School class over to their house last night for dinner and pumpkin carving. Before the carving started, I noticed Sara's ultrasounds on the fridge and for the first time ever when looking at an ultrasound, I could make out the baby!!! It was too cool, I could see his/her's little profile because s/he was laying down with a hand draped over the belly. I could see perfectly the forehead, nose, lips, chin, neck, belly, and little legs. Sara said they have the gender sealed away in an envelope but neither of them want to know right now. Too bad I couldn't tell from the picture.

Anyway, this was no draw-your-own-face-with-a-Sharpie-and-carve-it-with-a-steak-knife kind of pumpkin carving. That's what I'm used to. This time we had all the tools of the trade and they work really well. D and I took turns doing different parts of the carving:

First, you make a lid, so the stem can be taken off.

Then you take out all the seeds and all the slimy stuff.
Next, you tape the design onto the pumpkin and start poking holes where indicated with a special hole-poking tool.

After that is done, you remove the design and hopefully you will see all the holes you've just made. This is when the knife with a 2" blade with lots of teeth comes in handy. You just saw from dot to dot until the piece is ready to be popped out.


Mia joined the party and was very festive in her Halloween outfit. Mia is Tim and Michelle's second child. Sara is practicing for her baby in February. Can you see "boo" written on the bottom of Mia's feet? Too cute!
The guys got kind of bored waiting for everyone to finish up carving...
The final products
Yeah, they weren't too thrilled to be pulled from their Nintendo game for this picture, but oh well!
You can see the designs better in the dark. And thus ended our pumpkin carving evening.










I thought it'd be funny to see this side by side comparision, 2004 and 2006 respectively: